Halliburton, oil and water.

Y'know, I've seen a lot of people foaming at the mouth
about the cozy relationship between Halliburton and
the Gummint lately.

I don't think it's all that well understood.

When we look at the history of how Big Things got built -
dams, oilfields, skyscrapers - it's always been an
uneasy mix of private and public funding. The
history of the Golden Gate Bridge both shows how pure
private funding works, and just how limiting it is.

In "Cadillac Desert", we see how the Bureau of
Reclamation ran its course as a pure* Government
agency. Obviously, a more-private hybrid
could serve both private and public needs.

*there were subs, but not like now.

There used to be a mix of diverse companies doing this.
But as business technology has progressed, we have the
general tendency towards consolidation, coupled with
uncertainty due to political and resource supply.

When the smaller oil companies built reserves of cash to
weather the coming storm of domestic depletion around 1970,
they became targets for greenmailers. There became
an "inventory tax" on oil tank stocks.

Some of this was Reagan - a natural enmity existed between
the Water People ( the Central Valley farmers ) and the
Oil People in California. Reagan was a Water Person, who
largely was funded by the Central growers as a reaction to
Carter's threat to assess them for water payments.

And a lot of this was extreme downward pressure on oil
prices. The "generation" of management at Awl Bidness
companies post '83 was locked in a struggle over this
fact. This should have folded back demand, but as
we know, this is More Complicated Than That.

The upshot is that one company ends up being the
most efficient, vertically ( and somewhat
horizontally ) integrated solution provider.

So either the consolidation trend is bogus,
egged on by fees glommed by the actors who implement
them, with weak results ( 90ish% of all mergers lose
shareholder value ) or consolidation is a basically
sound strategy.

The case for consolidation is prima facie - fewer heads,
less cost. But we see a great deal of opportunity for
Rent, then. But this is s'posed to be "managed" by
contract rules. So, oy - it's a mess.

Finally, we see the election of Cheney as VP, which
looks like a conflict of interest. Well, not *really*.

Only a person with inside dope *on* a Halliburton
can *really* know the score - one need only look as
far back as Carter to see how damaging good intentions
can be.

At its core, this subject seems fraught with the sort
of contradictions embraced by a St. Augustine. And we
are reminded that these things are not *really*
business as usual, but complex and dangerous. And that
none of us can claim a perfect knowlege of what should
be.

Is there equivocation on my part? Of course - I am
trying to remain politically neutral on a subject
where that is all but impossible. We more or less
inherited an organically constructed "deal with
the devil", and it's going to be difficult to
ignore the past. It's a sort of Gordian Knot,
and we know who cut it this time 'round.

--
Les Cargill
.

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